ohmidog!

Add the Marines to the list of military branches banning “dangerous” dog breeds from some of their bases — most recently Camp Lejuene in North Carolina.

Nearly a year after a 3-year-old boy was killed by a visiting pit bull at Camp Lejeune, the base has changed its pet policy to ban full or mixed breeds of pit bull or Rottweiler, wolf hybrids, “any dog of any breed with traits of aggression as determined by the base veterinarian,” and any dog with a record of vicious behavior, according to a base spokesman.

A Pentagon memo issued earlier this year bans pit bulls, Rottweilers, Dobermans and chows from living on Army bases. The Air Force also has enacted a breed-selective policy and the Navy is expected to do the same.

The change at Camp Lejeune follows the death of Julian Slack last May, according to a letter written by Camp Lejeune’s commanding officer Col. Rich Flatau.  At the time of the attack, no specific breeds of dogs were forbidden on base, though animals deemed vicious were not allowed to stay, according to the Jacksonville Daily News.

In a letter distributed to family housing residents, Flatau said the breed choices chosen for the ban were based on ”a significant body of empirical evidence indicating they are apt to violent behavior, often unpredictable and have the capability to inflict severe harm or death.”

(Clearly, the Marines would never tolerate that kind of behavior.)

Camp Pendleton in California limits the number of dogs or cats residents can have, though no particular breeds of dogs are banned. Marine Corps Base Quantico, in Virginia, bans “potentially dangerous dogs such as full or mixed breeds of pit bulls (Stafford Bull Terrier, America Staffordshire Terrier and other similar breeds).”

The revised order also will apply to dogs brought aboard the base by visitors, Flatau wrote in his letter.

(Photo: Petoftheday.com)

When singer Emmylou Harris contacted DogTown — the last hope shelter operated by the Best Friends Animal Society in Utah — for help with an unpredictable German shepherd mix, they reacted much as I would have, rushing to her estate/animal shelter in Tennessee to offer their assistance.

(I would have gotten there quicker, and most likely listened to her music on the way.)

Instead, Best Friends animal behavior specialist Sherry Woodard got the call, and her work with Gunnar, a dog deemed too violent to be adopted, is featured in tonight’s episode of the National Geographic Channel’s “Dogtown” series.

While the 12 time Grammy winner doesn’t get a lot of screen time — she’s goes off on tour shortly after Woodard arrives — Gunnar makes some major headway, first accepting Woodard, then accepting another dog who’s intended to serve as a role model for him.

Harris runs a small shelter at her home in Nashville, which she started in honor of her dog Bonaparte.

Gunnar was found on the streets of Nashville, and Harris suspected he met with some ill treatment there, leading to his fear and lack of trust with humans. The four-year-old dog has bitten a dozen of her shelter volunteers, Harris said.

Hoping to get Gunnar socialized enough to be adopted, Harris called in several trainers, and DogTown was her last hope.

Tonight’s “DogTown” episode also tells story of Little Girl, a painfully shy Catahoula mix from a California shelter that shut down, and Theresa, an abandoned pit bull with a mysterious obstruction in her stomach.

The show airs at 10 p.m. tonight on the National Geographic Channel.

Councilman Ed Reisinger agreed tonight that $1,000 was too heavy a fine to impose on people caught with their dogs off leash and vowed to have the measure — part of a bill he introduced — amended, lowering the fine to $250.

Reisinger addressed scores of South Baltimore residents gathered under the gazebo at Riverside Park, most of them angry about the ten-fold increase in fines approved as part of a revision of the city’s animal law, many of them interested in setting aside a portion of the park in which dogs can run freely during designated times.

Both Reisinger and William Cole, the council member representing Federal Hill who also addressed the crowd, said they believed leash laws were necessary, and neither seemed too interested in pursuing designating off leash hours at city parks, as several members of the crowd proposed.

But they said the city was intent on creating new dog parks — fenced in areas in which dogs can roam off leash.

As of now, there is only one dog park in the city of Baltimore, built and maintained by a community group. A city-funded dog park is expected to open this summer in Latrobe Park in Locust Point, and at its groundbreaking last fall, Mayor Sheila Dixon promised as many as eight dog parks in the city.

Reisinger expressed willingness to work with any group interested in trying to bringing a dog park to Riverside Park, but could provide no time frame on how long that project might take.

Several of those attending said there was a need for dog owners to behave more responsibly and keep a closer eye on their dogs so that they don’t run up to strangers who might be frightened by them.

Most, though, wanted an answers as to why the fine was increased so extremely — from $100 to $1,000 — and with so little effort by the city to inform the public about it. Those answers never really came.

Imprisoned NFL star Michael Vick has reportedly talked to producers about launching an unscripted reality show that would follow him from the day of his scheduled release as he tries to ”make amends for his past.”

The Hollywood Reporter cites sources as saying producers visited the suspended Atlanta Falcons quarterback in prison in the hope of signing him.

Vick is serving a 23-month federal sentence for dogfighting, and he’s under pressure as well to submit a plan for crawling out of debt to a bankruptcy judge. His lawyers told a judge this month  that Vick has agreed to a “television documentary deal” that will pay him $600,000.

I’d be interested in knowing what network is considering airing this, so I could make a point of never watching anything on it ever again — unless of course he’s really “making amends.”

In that case, for his initial amend, I’d propose any money heading his way — from this venture, any book, or any other enterprise that capitalizes on his past exploitation of dogs — be sent instead to animal welfare organizations.

Can I hear an amend to that?

We’re branching out here at ohmidog! with the unveiling this weekend of our brand new, fresh from the smokehouse, hand-made, all-natural dog treats — “ohmidog-O’s.”

They may not save the world, but they will help a dog or two. All profits from the sale of “ohmidog-O’s” will go to animal welfare organizations — in this weekend’s case, the Maryland SPCA. We’ll be hawking them at the ohmidog! booth at Sunday’s March for the Animals.

Each bag of “ohmidog-O’s” contains three different O-shaped treats — liver niblets, a freshly ground chicken, beef and vegetable blend and dried sweet potatoes; and the label features Ace and a couple of his close canine friends.

All our raw materials came from K-9 Kraving Raw Diet Dog Food in Baltimore, one of our sponsors, where owner Bob Barrett was gracious enough to let us don aprons and funny hairnets to create our cookies out of rolled out portions of his Raw Diet Dog Food. Using circular cookie cutters we spent an afternoon carving out a thousand or so at the Boesl Packing Co., then rolled them into the smokehouse, where, after some wood chips were added to the fire for flavoring, they slow-cooked for another day.

Just today, they got the Ace seal of approval. We’ll be bagging them up, along with the sweet potato-O’s and the liver-O’s, in the days ahead and selling them at $6 a bag –a price high enough to both pay Bob for the meat and, according to my calculation, make a contribution of several hundred dollars to the SPCA, assuming of course you come to the March for the Animals and buy them.

We’ll be having some other fun and games at the ohmidog! booth as well, including our highly popular ball toss (throw a tennis ball into the ohmidog “O” and win a prize) and our renowned “Kiss My Ace” Kissing Booth and Dog Breath Emporium, which premiered at last year’s BARCStoberfest. All proceeds from those events will go the Maryland SPCA as well.

March for the Animals is Sunday, April 19 at Druid Hill Park, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Click the banner on the top of this page for more information.

And don’t forget to stop by our booth and say hello (and pick up a bag of “ohmidog-O’s”).

One Nation Under Dog, one of the latest contributions to the growing pile of American dog lit, is a highly readable volume that looks at our obsession with dogs, and the lengths (or are they extremes?) we go to on their (or is it our?) behalf.

As dog lit goes, this one’s worth scooping up, and not just for its accounting of excessive human behavior when it comes to dogs — from popping Prozac in our puppies, to luxury pet spas, to doggie social networking, to the dog food revolution, to spending our savings to prolong our dogs’ lives.

The book covers all that, and more, in an entertaining manner, but it’s at its best when it ventures into figuring out what’s behind the mania.

Written by Michael Schaffer, who like me — and like some guy named Grogan who once wrote a book about some dog named Marley — is a former writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer, One Nation Under Dog, chronicles the rise of the pet industry, where sales have risen from $17 billion to $43 billion in the past decade.

I asked Shaffer in an email interview what he sees as the factors behind the fast rising status of the dog — the species’ transition from backyard to master bedroom.

“If you look at data on the pet population, you see it starting to grow faster than the human population only around the late-60s or early 1970s. Had people’s choice to get pets just been a function of postwar prosperity, it might have spiked sooner. But the rise coincides with a bunch of other things: More divorce, moves away from old tight-knit urban neighborhoods, decline of labor unions, more moving away from family.”

In other words, we’ve turned to dogs for the sense of community some of us often don’t find in our fellow humans.

Read more »

Last September, Thomas Bruckner dropped his 2-year-old puggle off at a doggie daycare and spa in Hicksville, N.Y. for grooming.

Later that day, he learned that  the dog, named Bailey had gone into a coma — apparently while spending time in a drying cage. Bailey died the next day, of what a veterinarian said was heatsroke.

Bruckner, who teaches astronomy at Nassau Community College, received a $1,000 out of court settlement for his dog’s death. Now he’s seeking to ban drying cages, and get laws passed that require groomers to be licensed, according to Newsday.

Councilman Ed Reisinger has notified concerned constituents that he will be co-sponsoring a bill to reduce the fine for leash law violations from $1,000 to $250.

Here’s what he wrote:

“Hello to All,  On April 20, I will be co-sponsoring a bill to reduce the fine for leash violations from $1,000 to $250. As you know, this fine amount was increased during the consideration of Council Bill 08-0050, which raised fines for a number of animal-related offenses, such as animal abuse, dogfights, and failure to report possible rabies exposure.

“Among those violations for which we raised the fine to $1,000 were those that fell under the subtitle devoted to “General Care and Control.” This subtitle includes failure to provide food, shelter, sufficient space, or veterinary care needed to prevent suffering. I believe that most would agree that failure to provide these most basic elements of humane care warrants a steep fine. The leash law also falls under this subtitle.

“The bill I will be co-sponsoring creates a separate penalty for the leash requirement, and assigns a fine amount of $250 to any violation of this provision. This still represents an increase from the previous fine amount of $100, because it is important that the fine serves as an adequate deterrent.

“Unfortunately, in many parks throughout our neighborhoods, unleashed dogs are the norm. It is important that responsible dog owners recognize that the potential for negative consequences of this behavior go far beyond whatever fines are imposed—it creates a threat to the well-being and safety of both passersby and the dogs themselves.”

If his letter sounds a tad familiar, it’s because it’s  the exact same one that Councilman Jim Kraft wrote a constituent in response to concerns about the new penalties.

At least we know they know how to cut and paste.

Reisinger’s — or should we say Kraft’s — letter is in stark contrast to what the Baltimore Sun quoted Reisinger as saying yesterday in the newspaper’s Unleashed blog:

“… Reisinger says changing the law to reduce the fines is ‘not going to happen … My response is that the leash law has been on the books for years. It shouldn’t matter whether it’s $100 or $1,000.’

“While Reisinger says he won’t consider reducing the fines, he will talk with residents about how they could work with the city to create a dog park in South Baltimore.”

What a difference a day — and a few hundred perturbed dog-owning voters expressing themselves — makes. What makes this all the more interesting is that Reisinger and Kraft were both sponsors of the bill that increased the fines in the first place.

Reisinger will be meeting with concerned dog owners at Riverside Park, in the pavilion, at 7 p.m. Thursday.

This has got to be some kind of record — the day after the dog arrived at the White House, the first “Bo book” is already on the market.

“Bo, America’s Commander in Leash,” published by Mascot Books in Herndon, Va., is the first children’s book “starring the most famous dog in the world,” according to the publisher’s website.

“Join Bo on an exciting adventure as he learns all about the White House and experiences the traditions that make it such a special place. Bo’s adventures include time-honored White House traditions, including the Easter egg roll, Fourth of July fireworks on the National Mall, the pardoning of the Thanksgiving turkey, and all the festivities associated with holiday time at the White House.”

In other words, it’s a book about the White House into which Bo is being quickly inserted in hopes of capitalizing on the bad case of Bo fever we all seem to have.

Mascot is small independent publisher in Herndon, Va., that specializes in producing titles based on university and school mascots. The book is written from Bo’s point of view. Here’s an excerpt:

One day I was feeling a little mischevious and decided to swipe the Presidential letter opener from the President’s desk. Always a good sport, President Obama played along with my antics and chased me around the room, calling “Give me that back, Bo!” I was afraid that I might end up in the Presidential doghouse after this stunt.

Among those who are less than pleased with the Obama family’s decision against getting a rescue dog is Jana Kohl, whose book promoting adoption of animals featured a photo of Obama with her dog, a puppy mill refugee named Baby.

The author of “A Rare Breed of Love,” Kohl rescued Baby four years ago. Baby not only had her vocal chords removed with scissors but lost a leg due to the years of abuse at the hands of a breeder.

Not long after that, she decided to write a book calling attention to puppy mills. The book recounts Baby’s story and features photos of the dog with celebrities, including Paul Harvey, Steven Tyler, Bill Maher, Jim Cramer, and several politicians.

One of those politicians that agreed to meet with her was then-Senator Obama. Touched by Baby’s story, he then agreed to a photoshoot and, according to a press release promoting her book, pledged to Kohl that when he brought a dog home for his family, it would be a rescue dog – not one from a breeder.

This weekend’s announcement that the president opted to accept a puppy as a gift from Senator Ted Kennedy (via a breeder) and not to go to a shelter or rescue center has left Kohl upset, the Christian Science Monitor reports.

“I feel like he’s made a mockery out of the book and the things I wrote about him,” Kohl told the Monitor’s “Vote Blog.”

“I read what I said about him and it makes me cringe.”

Kohl said that his decision is more distressing because of the possible domino effect it could have — fueling the puppy mill industry.

“To add insult to injury, during these tough economic times it is incredibly insensitive and elitist of them to do this, ” she said. “People are tearfully turning in their pets to shelters because they can’t afford them anymore. We see it on news all the time.”

(Photo from “A Rare Breed of Love.”)